FARRUKH KAMAL AKHTAR

• Budgeting and planning (Sales, Stock, OTB, Margins, and Forward Cover)
• Align Retail, Buying & VM teams to define and drive assortment growth opportunity
• Oversee merchandise assortment, sales planning, promotional clearance, pricing and overall inventory management to maximize sales and gross margin
• Performance analysis of business to maximize planning, allocation, store profiling, store clustering
• Analyzing past and present market trends and forecasting future growth opportunities
• Developing product strategies based on the financial targets, historical performance & market trends
• Working with the allocation & replenishment team to manage inventory levels and ensure maximum profitability by monitoring product life cycles
• Formulating pre-season plans & recommending purchase/investment quantities
• Forecasting sales inventory & margins to drive & control open-to-buy
• Monitoring product performance in terms of sell through, margin, good-bad sellers
• Assessing suppliers to identify best performing supplier for purchasing and also identifying opportunities for repeat ordering based on product performance
• Reviewing & managing fast/slow lines, new ranges and end of ranges and implementing necessary actions
• Implementing measures to achieve in season, sell through and margin as per SOPs

Highlights As Merchandise Planning Manager:

• Major role in monitoring and planning to liquidate high stock levels of non-moving /old stocks and bringing it down to within norms
• Developed demand forecast based on historical trends, products life cycle status and promotions
• Excellence in Oracle Retail Planner, Retail Price Management, Merchandise Operation Management, Analysis with Enterprise Reporting & Oracle Business Intelligence.

• Managed inventory to secure high-performing seasonal collections in line with customer demand.
• Enhanced target sales, buying margins and gross profit margins.
• Managing sales and Markdowns
• Developed and implemented sales strategies to maximize profits.
• New store plan including Strategy, Planning & Execution
• Liquidation of Non-season Merchandise
• Territory, Store, Department, Section wise sell thru & Margin analysis
• Coordination with Warehouse & Supply Chain to maintain seamless deliveries
• Monitoring stock at warehouse & stores to ensure optimum inventory levels in stores
• Season end report analysis, competition reports & price mapping
• Member of the Season Buying Team
• Additional Sales of over 2M per year from Key Accounts.

• Planned & scheduled individual assignments to achieve pre-set goals within the time, quality & cost parameters
• Created initiatives, designing events, planning of merchandising and execution of these marketing events for increasing sales
• Managed point of purchase display units, collection graphics, window displays, hand-outs and packaging
• Forecasted trends, plan-stocking & de-stocking planning budgets and presenting sales forecasts / figure for new ranges to senior managers
• Conducted meetings for setting up sales objectives and designed or streamlined processes to ensure smooth functioning of sales operations
• Developed and sustained a dynamic environment that fosters development opportunities and motivated high performance amongst the team.

• Identified and developed potential dealers, monitored their performance and ensured achievement of targets from each dealer
• Developed and maintained tie-ups with companies and initiated service as well as sales to the corporate
• Estimated yearly and monthly sales target and ensured achievement of the same
• Mapped the needs of customers and the organization and suggested appropriate solution.

• Managed store operations, set up sales goals, monitored and ensured the achievement
• Directed market research, gathered understanding of retail sales strategies and provided solutions to cross- cultural teams
• Devised marketing strategies to enhance profitable brands and product ranges to increase sales
• Formulated and organized fortnightly store promotion plans and consumer market activities
• Ensured maximum customer satisfaction by providing resolution to complex customer queries or problems regarding prices, sales, guarantees, and merchandising
• Introduced and established daily demand forecasts using the company's forecasting process and ensured that daily requirements are met.